A new study of corn’s DNA and archaeology has rewritten the natural history of its domestication and how it spread through the Americas.

For years, geneticists and archaeologists have deduced that teosinte’s transformation into maize began in the tropical lowlands of what is now southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago. The teosinte that grows wild in this region today is more genetically similar to maize than teosinte elsewhere in Mexico and Central America—though all remain separated from the domesticated crop by hundreds of genes.

In the southwest Amazon and coastal Peru, microscopic pollen and other resilient plant remains found in ancient sediments indicate a history of fully domesticated maize use by around 6,500 years ago, and researchers initially reasoned that the fully domesticated plant must have been carried there from the north as people migrated south and across the Americas.

“As far as we could tell before conducting our study, it looked like there was a single domestication event in Mexico and that people then spread it further south after domestication had taken place,” [Curator of archaeogenomics and archaeobotany at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History Logan] Kistler said.

But a few years ago, when geneticists sequenced the DNA of 5,000-year-old maize found in Mexico, the story got more complicated. The genetic results showed that what they had found was a proto-corn — its genes were a mixture of those found in teosinte and those of the domesticated plant. According to the ancient DNA, that plant lacked teosinte’s tough kernel casings, but this proto-corn had not yet acquired other traits that eventually made maize into a practical food crop.

“But you’ve got continuous cultivation of maize in the southwest Amazon from 6,500 years ago all the way up through European colonization,” Kistler said. “How can you have this flourishing, fully domesticated maize complex in the southwest Amazon, and meanwhile, near the domestication center in Mexico the domestication process is still ongoing?”

Kistler, lead author of the study, and his multidisciplinary team reconstructed the evolutionary history of maize by comparing the DNA of more than 100 varieties of corn. It was broader in scope than any previous study, covering 40 varieties that had never been genetically sequenced before. Many of the different types of corn were collected by indigenous farmers and are preserved in Brazil’s Embrapa genebank. The modern corn was compared to 11 archaeological examples, nine of which have been newly sequenced for this study.

The results at first seemed contradictory, pointing in so many directions that researchers had to trace carefully to make sense of the data. As so often happens in natural history, the answer to the question of where maize was first domesticated and how it spread is that there is no one place, but several. When the genetic connections between the plants were fully mapped, researchers found multiple lineages each overlapping with teosinte to a different degree.

A proto-corn in the midst of becoming domesticated appears to have reached South America at least twice, Kistler said. By 6,500 years ago, the partially domesticated plant had arrived in a region of the southwest Amazon that was already a domestication hotspot, where people were growing rice, cassava and other crops. The plant was likely adopted as part of the local agriculture and continued to evolve under human influence until, thousands of years later, it became a fully domesticated crop. From there, domesticated maize moved eastward as part of an overall expansion and intensification of agriculture that archaeologists have noted in the region. By around 4,000 years ago, Kistler said, maize had spread widely through the South American lowlands. Genetic and archaeological evidence also align to suggest that maize cultivation expanded eastward a second time, from the foothills of the Andes toward the Atlantic, about 1,000 years ago. Today, traces of that history exist in the Macro-Jê languages spoken near the Atlantic coast, which use an Amazonian word for maize. […]

“This work fundamentally changes our understanding of maize origins,” said study co-author Robin Allaby from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick. “It shows that maize did not have a simple origin story, that it did not really form the crop as we know it until it left its homeland.”

Archaeologists have unearthed an intact tomb from the 5th Dynasty in the necropolis of Saqquara that is replete with exceptional statuary and painted reliefs. Discovered 16 feet under a buried ridge, the entrance to the tomb was carved with a hieroglyphic inscription included the name and titles of the deceased: Wahtye, royal purification priest, royal supervisor, and inspector of the sacred boat under Pharaoh Neferirkare Kakai (reigned ca. 2446–2438 B.C.), the third king of the 5th Dynasty.

[Minister Khaled]Anany explained that the discovered tomb is exceptionally well-preserved and painted, with walls decorated with colourful scenes, showing royal priest “Wahtye” with his mother, wife and family as well as a number of sanctuaries with large colored statues of the priest and his family.

“It is the most beautiful tomb discovered this year” Anany said.

Secretary-general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the head of the excavation mission, Mostafa Waziri, said that the mission uncovered the tomb’s facade during its second excavation season in November, but was unable to enter it at that time because the doors were sealed.

Once past a narrow passageway, archaeologists entered a rectangular gallery 33 feet long, ten feet wide and just under ten feet high. Its advanced age is belied by the vivid color in the painted wall reliefs and on the many statues found inside the chamber. There are 18 large niches containing 24 painted statues of the priest and his family. On the lower part of the wall are 26 small niches with 31 statues of people standing or seated in the scribe position. They are all very similar, not to say identical, in facial features, so it’s possible they may represent a single individual, another priest or family member, yet to be identified.

In addition to statues and scenes depicting the Wahtye family, there are scenes of people engaged in their daily work — making pottery and wine, playing music, sailing boats, hunting, manufacturing funerary furniture and engaging in other religious rituals.

As exceptional as the decoration and condition are, the tomb will likely stun us further. The last of the debris was removed from the main room of the tomb on Thursday revealing five shafts within. One of them was unsealed and empty. The other four are still sealed, shut tight against thieves and the elements for 4,400 years. Archaeologists hope to find cool stuff inside when they start excavating the shafts on Sunday, with one shaft looking particularly promising.

Archaeologists have unearthed a tiny figurine of a Celtic god on the grounds of the Wimpole Estate in Cambridgeshire. The Lamp Hill site was being excavated before construction of a new visitor center and parking lot on the National Trust property. Oxford Archaeology East started the dig in July and over the next three months discovered a Late Iron Age to Early Roman (ca. 100 B.C. – 150 A.D.) settlement that was much more extensive than they expected. There were dense layers of remains — livestock enclosures, agriculture, pottery making, homes — representing the variety of uses the land had been put to in antiquity.

Even with 19th century coprolite mining having damaged the center of the settlement, towards the outer edge of it archaeologists found two roundhouses, a corn dryer and a broken pot indicating that pottery was produced there. There was also imported pottery, fragments of a glass vessel and metalwork that suggest there was a significant trading network supplying Wimpole with goods. Military objects seem to have been particularly desirable. The settlement was rural, but it was located close to the Roman road known as Ermine Street (a derivative of its Old English name; the Roman name is unknown), which ran from London’s Bishopgate through Lincoln to York.

Approximately 300 metal objects were found during the excavation, including coins, horse harness fittings, Roman army uniform fittings, weapons, jewelry and iron nails. The stand-out metal piece is a copper alloy figurine two inches high. While the face has worn off, the individual is posed holding a torc, a posture typical of figures representing the Celtic fertility god Cernunnos.

Similar figures of Cernunnos have been found carved in stone, but it is the first metal version to be discovered in Britain and shows strong links between the ancient people of Britain and the Roman legionnaires.

Stephen Macaulay, Deputy Regional Manager at Oxford Archaeology East, which carried out the excavation, said: “The face of the figurine has been rubbed away, but we see similar figures of Cernunnos, so it’s like finding a worn version of Jesus on a crucifix, it’s the shape you expect to see.

“He was an important God to the Celts, but this shows how accepting the Romans were of other religions, they often just merged the Gods with their own. The Romans really ran their empire like the British did, they would conquer and then reinstate the people who had already been in charge.

“The Wimpole story is interesting as it gives us a snapshot of local people living alongside the legionnaires as they travelled up and down the country along Ermine Street.”

The objects unearthed in this summer’s dig are being cleaned and conserved. They will be placed on display at Wimpole in future exhibitions.

Researchers at the Israel Antiquities Authority have uncovered a Byzantine-era lamp wick. At 1,500 years old, it is one of the oldest wicks of very few known to have survived. It was found at the ancient Byzantine site of Shivta south of Be’er Sheva, the flax material preserved by the arid climate of the Negev desert.

The wick was unearthed 85 years ago by American archaeologist Harris Dunscombe Colt who excavated Shivta in 1933-34. The ruins were first recorded in the 1860s and Leonard Woolley and his assistant T.E. Lawrence took detailed plans of the site in 1914-15, but Colt’s expedition was the first systematic archaeological exploration of the site. The city has elements of Nabatean influence, primarily their characteristic desert management irrigation and agricultural techniques found at a farm next to the urban site. Aside from a few 1st century B.C. Roman structures, the archaeological remains in the city itself — churches, wine presses, homes, government buildings — are Byzantine.

Only a brief report on the Shivta dig in the 1935 issue of Palestine Exploration Fund Quarterly was ever published. The artifacts are now being studied for the first time as part of the Negev Byzantine Bio-Archaeology Research Program, a comprehensive examination of Byzantine settlements in the Negev led by University of Haifa professors. The wick was sent to the Israel Antiquities Authority laboratory for analysis last year.

Dr. Naama Sukenik of the Israel Antiquities Authority, who studied the wick says: “It seems that this rare find was preserved thanks to the dry climate in the Negev. Oil lamps played a key role in daily life in antiquity, illuminating homes and public buildings after sunset. Lamps made of pottery or glass are often found in archaeological excavations, but to find a wick from ancient times is rare. That’s because they’re made of organic fibers, which normally disintegrate quickly and disappear into the soil, as well as because they are so small and are usually consumed by fire.”

The wick was found in its holder – a small copper tube in which it was inserted when it was lit. Microscopic examination by Dr. Sukenik showed that the wick was made of linen, which comes from the flax plant and is known for its use in textiles and clothing as well as for wicks in oil lamps.

“The Mishnah [, the main book of Jewish legal theory], tractate Shabbat discusses what materials may and may not be used as wicks to light Sabbath lamps. There too, linen is mentioned as a high-quality material for wicks, because it burns long and beautifully. The Mishnah mentions other wicks, which were made of lesser quality materials and were therefore prohibited for use in Sabbath lamps. Among these were fibers made from the plant called Sodom’s apple, which to this day grows in the Dead Sea area. It seems that the inhabitants of Shivta also chose to light their public buildings with linen wicks. Because flax doesn’t grow in the Negev it probably came from farther north in the country through commerce,” Dr. Sukenik added.

This wick was made of lower quality flax fibers. It was just a few centimeters long and meant to be consumed by fire, so might as well use the cheaper linen. The longer, more expensive fibers were saved for making clothes. It would have been used in a glass lamp, a simple cup or bowl filled with oil that was slurped up by the linen and provide fuel for the light.

The wick in its bronze carrier and other artifacts unearthed by Colt and his team at Shivta will go on display at the Hecht Museum in Haifa staring January 24th, 2019.